Teacher license test pass rates vary

WORCESTER — There seem to be a million ways to rank a college, but for people going into fields that require a professional license, there is yet another measure: Pass rates on the licensing tests.

Teachers must take the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure, known as MTEL, and Central Massachusetts' nine teacher preparation programs vary significantly in their recorded pass rate on the tests. The largest programs — Fitchburg and Worcester state universities — also had among the highest MTEL pass rates for students during the 2011-12 school year, while the private colleges were more of a mixed bag, with fewer than half the students in Becker College's small program passing before the end of June 2012, and 100 percent of Assumption College's doing so.

Like any statistic, the numbers don't tell the whole story. Some schools — including Fitchburg State, Worcester State, Assumption, Clark University, College of the Holy Cross and Nichols College — require students to pass MTEL before graduation, while others, such as Becker and Anna Maria College, do not.

Becker's MTEL pass rate at the end of June 2012 was the lowest in the state that year, but its percentage didn't include the five additional students who passed the tests after graduation, which would have brought the college's pass rate to 73 percent, according to Sandy Lashin-Curewitz, the college's interactive media communications director.

Those missing numbers, the fact that some students go home to another state to take a licensure test there and that some decide to remain instructional assistants rather than teachers "account for what may be presented as a low pass rate but reflects an incomplete and inaccurate picture," Ms. Lashin-Curewitz said in an email.

Kenneth L. King, 44, of Douglas, a fifth-grade teacher in Blackstone, graduated from Becker in 2012 and chose Becker because its accelerated program let him finish sooner than what was available elsewhere at the time.

"The thing that I was looking at as far as the cost was 'Can I get this done sooner? Can I get back to work sooner?' " As an adult student and career-changer, he was also looking for a campus where he would feel comfortable. The MTEL pass rate wasn't a factor, and the tests turned out not to be an obstacle for him; he said he passed each on his first attempt.

Anna Maria College's 71 percent pass rate for 2011-12 was tied for second lowest in the state. It was the second year in a row the college's pass rate was in the 70s instead of the 80s where it had been previously, and the drop triggered several steps, said Paula Green, the college's vice president of marketing and college relations. The college reworked its math courses for early childhood and elementary school teachers to better align with the math MTEL subtest, redesigned tutoring sessions to address students' weak areas on practice tests of communication and literacy and math MTELs, and, starting this spring, requiring education students to take MTEL tutoring sessions.

If a college's MTEL pass rate fell below 80 percent, it used to trigger a review by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, but changes in 2012 removed the MTEL cutoff and allowed the department to do an interim review whenever it deemed necessary, according to a spokesman for the state. The department is drafting more specific guidelines, though not requirements, for reviews.

For students trying to choose a teacher preparation program, faculty members would prefer they look at the details, not the pass rates. Assumption and Fitchburg State both had 100 percent pass rates, for instance, but hope to distinguish themselves in other ways. At Assumption, elementary education majors take four separate teaching methods classes in history, English, science and math, said Eric M. Howe, chairman of the education department. That, combined with classes of 12 to 15 people and the college's plans to start offering concurrent education and content majors this fall with specialized content-area courses for education majors should help students understand why paying more for a private college might be worth it, he said.

At Fitchburg State, Education Dean Annette Sullivan noted that her college is accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (it is the only local program NCATE lists on its website) and that the college campus includes the McKay Arts Academy, a preschool through Grade 8 public school where college students can student teach even if they don't have a car to get off campus. Ms. Sullivan also noted that classes usually have no more than 20 people, and the college tailors its content-area courses for education majors to match the MTEL content.

Fitchburg State also holds workshops to help students pass the test, something alumna Kara M. Davenport took advantage of. "I'm not a really good test taker," she said. She had to take some of the MTEL tests more than once before passing, but Fitchburg State's workshops, she said, "really helped." Now, as a third grade teacher in Fitchburg, she assesses her students using more than just standardized tests and is "trying to teach them some good test-taking skills that I wish someone had taught me when I was younger."

While cost and location were part of what lead her to choose Fitchburg State, she was so pleased with the program that she is pursuing her master's there, too. Ms. Sullivan, she said, became "like a mom."

A checklist from the American Federation of Teachers, one of the country's two major teachers' unions, lists licensure pass rates as among the factors college students should consider when choosing a teacher preparation program.

The others include the program's accreditation, fit, student teaching experience and reciprocity with other states.

The fact that there are so many teacher preparation programs around didn't stop Worcester public schools from running its own from 2003-2012, a time when there weren't enough math, science and English teachers coming to the city, said Mark Brophy, who got the program running and is now Worcester public schools' director of instructional support personnel.

It was discontinued when teachers in those subjects became more plentiful, he said.